Cranleigh Schools are pleased to announce the shortlist for this year’s Awesome Book Awards. This is the third year for the prize, which recognises the very best works of fiction for young readers aged between 7 and 10.

To be eligible for the 2019 award the entrants had to be from lesser known authors, suitable for able readers in the listed age group, appealing to both boys and girls and available in paperback from May 2017.

The shortlist for this year comprises:

Being Miss Nobody by Tamsin Winter

Brightstorm by Vashti Hardy

Running on the Roof of the World by Jess Butterworth

The Ice Garden by Guy Jones

The Starman and Me by Sharon Cohen

Each author will read extracts from their works at the gala awards evening on 2nd May 2019.

Schools across London and the South East are invited to register to take part in the 2019 Awesome Books Awards at https://www.awesomebookawards.com, by reading the books on the shortlist and voting for their favourite. Hundreds of pupils will get the opportunity to attend the awards evening.

Cranleigh Prep School’s Head of English, Kate Schutte, who came up with the idea for the Awards, said: “We’re so excited that the Awesome Books Awards have grown year on year and are becoming firmly established as a key event for young readers. The Awesomes are particularly special because it is the children themselves who are voting for their favourite books and it’s fantastic for younger children to see how these kinds of awards work, as well as for new authors to get the recognition they deserve. We really hope that it will help us to foster a great love of reading amongst prep school aged children across the country.”

Hundreds of young readers from across London and the South East gathered together for a celebration of children’s fiction at the 2018 Awesome Book Awards prize-giving earlier this year. Peter Bunzl won the top prize in the 2018 competition for his first children’s novel, Cogheart. Peter was presented with his prize by the previous year’s winner, Ross Welford, whose book Time Travelling with a Hamster was the most popular book in 2017.